A common surgical procedure for attaching materials together is sewing. In the case of surgical procedures a wound is closed by the manual application of a suture thread installed by means of a needle attached to the suture thread. Needle passage through tough tissue is often necessary and as such the needle must be rigid and sharply pointed. In the case of surgical suturing the needle is sometimes positioned and manouvered by the use of instruments to avoid direct handling of the needle. Even so the medical operative often experiences difficulty forcing the needle through tissue. This has limited the application of suturing to tissues which are readily accessible to the surgeon. The forceful use of a sharp needle sometimes results in needle stick injury to medical personnel. Needle stick injury has been cited as a probable cause for transmission of disease from medical personnel to patient and vice-versa. In particular, suturing or sewing of internal body tissue is extremely difficult in laparoscopic surgery, where suturing instruments must necessarily be operated remote from the tissue being sutured since the instrument must pass along a trocar into the body of the patient.